CAMELOT Returns to Broadway - Reviews Thread — Page 14

Now that's real singing!

inception said: "RippedMan said: "Donica sounds...fine. You could throw a rock down 8th Ave and hit 100x singers who would sing it just like that. He's just not exciting. And the design seems King and I minimal. Eh. Curious to hear thoughts, but didn't love the Sorkin Mockingbird."

"He's just not exciting."

!!!

Jordan Donica is the sexiest man alive"

All subjective, for sure. Just doesn't do anything for me. Vocally, acting. But all good, glad you enjoy him! I will say he sounds better here than in MFL.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Dolly80 said: "What’s with the American accents when they sing? I hope that doesn’t happen in the theatre."

I don’t know what the plan is for the production, but the audition notice said to use your own accent. It could be a choice of director/writer to try to thread the similarities to America today."

Kate Wilson is credited as “Vocal & Dialect Coach” - which I realize isn’t determinative, but I too am hoping they don’t use incongruous American accents.

Joshua Henry was so fantastic as Burr that my daughter and I joked that the musical could have been renamed Burr.

Jordon Donica was miscast as Lafayette. I felt badly for him trying to do the rapid-fire rapping in a French accent a la Daveed Diggs. It felt almost unfair. Let’s just say he didn’t sound French. You could see his visible relief, like a weight had been lifted, when he could play Jefferson. But his voice seems much better suited for classical roles. I can’t comment on his acting. I saw My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center, but not with him.

Updated On: 2/27/23 at 05:09 AM

Jeffrey Karasarides said: "In a recent interview with Lincoln Center Theater's blog, Aaron Sorkin discussed his process in writing the new book
https://www.lct.org/explore/blog/aaron-sorkin-how-he-wrote-new-book-camelot/?fbclid=IwAR1fnw9CA0vaF0Y5oOzPm6MhiIHKHv8RqBP8xHQsOg_0uMlh5D_SX1T8770"



A few reactions from this:

"One of the other major changes Sorkin has made is to the musical’s love triangle between King Arthur, his queen, Guenevere, and the knight Lancelot. “I wanted those stories to feel relevant to 2023." Do we think Arthur is......you know.....in this version of the musical?

"I wanted Camelot to work as a play with songs." eeeeeeek...

“Instead of having the story take place in a kind of Middle Earth,” Sorkin said, “I wanted it to take place in a real time and place – England in the late-15th century, on the eve of Enlightenment – and to make Arthur a real king.” a smart, potentially interesting thing to do.

Anyone plan on attending Thursday’s first preview?

Sitzprobe with the show’s 30-piece orchestra was this weekend.

RippedMan said: "Donica sounds...fine. You could throw a rock down 8th Ave and hit 100x singers who would sing it just like that. He's just not exciting. And the design seems King and I minimal. Eh. Curious to hear thoughts, but didn't love the Sorkin Mockingbird."

Donica absolutely brought the house down in the recent Broadway NY Pops concert, in a way that doesn’t typically happen to that degree in the Pops concerts. The audience went ballistic, and he was the talk of every revue of that concert. Delusional to think that 100x singers on 8th Ave could have that effect.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Jeffrey Karasarides said: "In a recent interview with Lincoln Center Theater's blog, Aaron Sorkin discussed his process in writing the new book
https://www.lct.org/explore/blog/aaron-sorkin-how-he-wrote-new-book-camelot/?fbclid=IwAR1fnw9CA0vaF0Y5oOzPm6MhiIHKHv8RqBP8xHQsOg_0uMlh5D_SX1T8770"



A few reactions from this:



“Instead of having the story take place in a kind of Middle Earth,” Sorkin said, “I wanted it to take place in a real time and place – England in the late-15thcentury, on the eve of Enlightenment – and to make Arthur a real king.”a smart, potentially interesting thing to do."



Camelot in the 15th century? A 15th century England that hadn't had the rule of law or a code of chivalry or a king's counsel for a thousand years? What kind of 15th century England is that?

Sorry, this makes no sense Camelot is unequivocally a dark ages musical. Not a rennaisance, let alone eve-of-enlightenment--three centuries after the 15th by the way-- one. It takes place in a time of legend. Period.

I hope we don't get another wall like the King and I.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "It's also a 15th century England with a diverse population of people who express emotion through song (and, if some rumors are true, speak with American accents). As with other fairytales, I'm willing to overlook that element if it adds a layer of interest, knowing that this is perhaps a multiverse coexisting alongside Richard III or Henry V."

Not to be pedantic (I'm totally being pedantic) but the accents in England from the 15th century would probably sound closer to the modern American accent than the modern English one, not to mention in all likelihood the characters would be speaking French.

^ This!


And having just seen and been disappointed by the new Sweeney, I’m really hoping for a big, shiny, and opulent Broadway revival of a musical! If anyone can pull that off, it’s Sher.

As far as seating, I haven't been disappointed with Lodge seats I've sat in, but the orchestra will be better. There's very little Lodge overhang, so just about anywhere in the Orchestra will be closer.

If you get a chance, if you go more than once, try sitting in the first or second row, either to the left or right of the pit, it’s like you’re practically on stage, and you can see every expression on their faces. It’s a unique experience to me.

I don’t recall rewriting the book of a music that’s already classified up there as an almost classic. Although it’s certainly not known that way because of its book. I think Sorkin is going to be preaching to us, and I just hope it isn’t heavy handed, but he lays it in between the lines.

If they were going to rewrite a book, I’d like them to write a new book for a musical like Pipe Dream, one of the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s flops. It has good songs, and some interesting characters. Mrs. Maisel actually used a couple of tunes from that show as incidental music. The infectious “Sweet Thursday” is heard as they’re all going into the theater for the musical written by the music director from their Catskills resort.